Communist Party of Greece

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) is a communist political party in Greece, founded in 1918. The party had its roots in more than 60 years of socialist, anarchist, and communist activity in Greece, and the October Revolution of 1917 allowed for the KKE to develop into what would become Greece's oldest party. The party opposed Greece's occupation of Turkey in the aftermath of World War I, leading to the Greek fascist dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas accusing the KKE of treason; the KKE was also involved in supporting Macedonian independence. Metaxas had most of the KKE's leaders and members imprisoned, but the party experienced a resurgence in response to the Nazi and Italian occupation of Greece during World War II. The KKE founded the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), which became the largest resistance movement in the country. After the war, the KKE formed the Democratic Army of Greece to overthrow the Greek monarchy, and it made good progress during the first few years of the Greek Civil War before being defeated by the US-backed Greek government. The KKE was banned for years after the civil war, and many of its leaders were executed. In 1974, the party was legalized after parliamentary democracy was restored in the aftermath of the fall of the military junta, and it was the fourth-largest party in Greece by 2015. In 2017, the party held 15/300 Parliament seats, 2/21 European Parliament seats, and 31/725 regional government seats.